The Wanganui Chronicle. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8,1940 DE GAULLE RE-ENTERS FRENCH POLITICS

Wanganui Chronicle, 8 November 1946, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8,1940 DE GAULLE RE-ENTERS FRENCH POLITICS

THE return of General Charles de Gaulle, to the political arena 1 of France is likely to make the situation more tense. France needs less of the political poles and more men of the middle way, for Frenchmen are inclined to go to extremes and divide the nation from top to bottom. Were de Gaulle likely to exercise a unifying influence upon public opinion and national life his re-entry would be. welcome, but experience has shown that he does not possess the temperament necessary to fill the placatory role. De Gaulle played an important role in the dark days of the occupation of his country by Germany. He preached defiance and urged the continuance of resistance, but. he was not in a position io maintain an organised effort and he had to depart for England. Here his name was one among many employed to inspire the people of France to be treated as a Great Power, regarding her defeat as purely an incident in a larger drama than a Franco-German eon diet. The result was that he became unpopular with the statesmen of the United Nations, a result which may have inconvenienced him but did not turn him from his path. All this is to his credit, even though he was an uncomfortable bedfellow for so many.

When liberation came, de Gaulle’s temperament was not such as would allow him to emulate Abraham Lincoln; for instance, men feared that he would seek to impose, an authoritatarian regime upon his country in order to resuscitate it. True to his given word, he remained a soldier and retired from the head of the Stall' in due time. Having made that retirement, however, he now feels himself to be free to re-enter public life. Opinions may differ as fo the appropriateness of the course he has adopted but it may b" fairly claimed that he has divested himself of all power, returned to the position of an ordinary citizen, and as such has as much right, to exercise his privileges as a citizen, as has any other person. That, he will exploit the prestige gained by the recently-held high office is not to be gainsaid.

But what is the political scene into which he has now stepped .’ Here the problem commences for the narrator. It is easy, comparatively speaking, to deal with the personality of one man. but it is very difficult indeed for the native to follow the machinations of the’several parties and to anticipate with any degree of certaiutly how they will behave in the future. For Ihe foreign onserver tiff* task is never too impossible. General de Gaulle hail presided over a three-party Government consisting of the Communists. Socialists and Christian Democrats. Faeh of these parties, conscious of the shortage of food (bread rationing had been reintroduced and the meat supply was in a state of chaos) desired to avoid carrying the blame for these shortcomings. Internecine manoeuvres were continuous and, tiring of these, General de, Gaulle retired suddenly on January *2O. claiming as his reasons for such action that the affairs of the nation had improved to the point, where he felt he could lay down his burden and leave Ihe task' Io be undertaken by more normal political procedure. The public took this step ealmly and de Gaulle’s exit occasioned no crisis. The Government, however, was faced with the dual task of putting the country’s finances in order anil in re-establishing the food supply on a satisfactory basis. M. Blum went to the United States and’ was successful in obtaining a line of credit which enabled France ot secure much equipment and supplies sorely needed at, the time. These successes were not sufficient to meet, the needs of France to-day and to allay the general dissatisfaction generated by adverse conditions, conditions that have grown steadily worse for the man in the street since the end of the war.

Operating a.t the same lime as the desire to avoid the opprobrium which shortages bring upon any Government is the neutral distrust of the Christian Democrats and the Communists, It seems improbable that these two parties will come closer together, and there is every probability that they will draw further and further from each other, resulting in a breakdown in the tripartite government. The Communists claim that a 25 per cent, rise in all controlled wages is now a possibility, but against this is the extra bnrden.of equalsing' the incomes of other sections of the public to enable them to meet the resulting increased cost of living. Data to support either ease are not reliable and the tangle 01. demand and inability to supply becomes more and more complex. The inability of the Government to control prices makes the lot oi the fixed-income groups very unsatisfactory and so confusion is becoming worse, confounded. Could a strong Government cut the Gordian knot? Are many Frenchmen entertaining to-day the belief that it could? If so, they are likely to turn to de Gaulle in sufficient numbers to place him in the saddle. His proposals for a revision of the Constitution arc yet to be revealed. That he does not like the Constitution as it stands to-day is certain, but will ho be satisfied with constitutional channels to secure the revision on which he has set his heart? Unfortunately a sense of apati”

is creeping over Frenchmen. Many 01. them are inuiiieient to polities anil, consequently, they did not. trouble to vote when the Constitution was put before them. Such a situation —eagerness on tiie one side, apathy among the masses, distrust among the political parties, the Communists wanting to move too fast and the Christian Democrats suspected of being really reactionary at heart, and a general feeling of political frustration pervading all sections—is pregnant with possibilities, and they are ugly ones.